Development of fast pyrolysis based advanced biofuel technologies for biofuels

生物燃料作为一种可再生能源的使用已经变得越来越重要。更具体地说，用于交通运输的生物燃料有可能取代世界各地大量的石油。欧盟的目标是到2020年实现至少10%的道路燃料来自植物。碳信托基金选择“热解挑战”作为生物能源加速器的第一链，投资1000万英镑，突出了热解油作为低系统温室气体排放的运输燃料的潜在替代品的重要性。虽然快速热解油有可能在现有的炼油厂基础设施中加工成运输燃料，但我们处理石油的能力需要提高对如何控制其化学成分和改善其物理性质的理解。目前的快速热解油本身就不稳定，因为它们的高氧含量和酸性导致活性成分的聚合，随后通过聚合物形成的粘度增加，阻碍了直接精炼。因此，需要能够转化快速热解油的催化工艺，使其酸度和氧含量在中等条件下降低，从而提高油的稳定性并允许直接精炼。为了最大限度地减少能量输入，需要在热解后立即使用紧密耦合的催化反应器对热解油蒸汽进行催化处理，以促进脱氧、链生长和/或分子芳香化。这种方法将最大限度地减少额外的能量投入，但也减少了聚合成更难处理的树脂的途径。为了实现这些目标，我们建议探索非贵金属脱氧裂化催化剂，包括掺杂沸石材料和双功能铁基催化剂，用于热解油蒸气的预处理。通过在气相中工作，我们应该消除目前与在液相过程中使用此类催化剂相关的一些问题，其中酸性成分的浸出和炭沉积导致失活。还将评估预处理对生物油总体最终加氢脱氧（HDO）的影响。这些炼油厂原料路线将在技术和经济上进行比较。

The use of biofuels, as a renewable source of energy has become increasingly important. More in particular, biofuels for transport have the potential to displace a substantial amount of petroleum around the world. The EU is aiming to achieve at least 10% of road fuel derived from plants by 2020. The Carbon Trust selected "Pyrolysis Challenge" as the first strand of Bioenergy Accelerator with £10m investment, highlighting the importance of pyrolysis-oil as the potential replacement for transport fuels with low system GHG (green house gases) emissions. While fast pyrolysis oils have the potential to be processed in existing petroleum refinery infrastructure to transportation fuels, our ability to process the oil requires improved understanding of how to control its chemical composition and improve its physical properties. Current fast-pyrolysis oils are inherently unstable due to their high oxygen content and acidity which leads to polymerisation of reactive components and subsequent viscosity increase via polymer formation which hinders direct refining. Catalytic processes are thus required capable of transforming fast pyrolysis oils such that their acidity and oxygen content is reduced under moderate conditions thereby improving oil stability and allowing direct refining. To minimise energy inputs, it would be desirable to catalytically treat pyrolysis oil vapours immediately after the pyrolyser using a close coupled catalytic reactor to facilitate deoxygenation, chain growth and/or aromatisation of molecules. Such an approach would minimise extra energy inputs but also reduce polymerisation routes into more intractable resins. To achieve these goals we propose to explore non-precious metal de-oxygenation cracking catalysts including doped zeolite materials and bifunctional Fe based catalysts for pre-treatment of pyrolysis oil vapours. By working in the vapour phase we should eliminate some of the problems currently associated with the use of such catalysts in liquid phase processes where leaching by acidic components and char deposition leads to deactivation. The impact of pre-treatment on overall final hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of bio-oil will also be evaluated. These routes to refinery feedstocks will be compared technically and economically.